“The whole point of receiving and practicing the teachings is to understand your buddha nature, which is the very essence of your being. This understanding comes through practice. If we lacked the buddha nature, what would be the point of the practices? Why would we practice these complicated techniques, and learn the symbolism, if the buddha nature was not already within us, waiting to be revealed? It would be ridiculous to practice if our true nature were not what it is. It would be like pressing a rock to get oil. The effort would be fruitless.
Yet, we must make efforts to realize our buddha nature, even though we all possess it. Just as you would not know that butter is the essence of milk unless you churned the milk—and not just a few churns will do; you really must churn with effort—in the same way, you must practice with effort and diligence to understand your own true nature.
Nevertheless, you must remember that practice only reveals what is already present. If you churn water hoping to get butter, it will not happen, will it? We undergo the hardships of the spiritual path because our essence is already Buddha. It is already perfectly realized. If it were not, practice would be pointless. The process is like refining ore that you know has gold in it. You work long and hard to extract the gold from the rock, but if you knew the rock had no gold in it, why would you try to extract it?”
Gyatrul Rinpoche
Yet, we must make efforts to realize our buddha nature, even though we all possess it. Just as you would not know that butter is the essence of milk unless you churned the milk—and not just a few churns will do; you really must churn with effort—in the same way, you must practice with effort and diligence to understand your own true nature.
Nevertheless, you must remember that practice only reveals what is already present. If you churn water hoping to get butter, it will not happen, will it? We undergo the hardships of the spiritual path because our essence is already Buddha. It is already perfectly realized. If it were not, practice would be pointless. The process is like refining ore that you know has gold in it. You work long and hard to extract the gold from the rock, but if you knew the rock had no gold in it, why would you try to extract it?”
Gyatrul Rinpoche